In athletic sports such as the 100 meter sprint, it is very easy to compare one athletes ability to another. You can do this by comparing the time it takes them to complete a 100 meter sprint on a track.
In horse racing however, it is not so easy to directly compare one horses ability to another.
This is due to the surface (going), and track layout being very different from race to race. Which is unlike an athletic race such as the 100 meter sprint where all tracks are almost identical.
So in order to accurately assess a horses true ability, you have to take into account these different factors when considering their overall performance.
You can do this by creating speed ratings.
A speed ratings provides an estimate of how fast a horse ran in a particular race. These speed ratings should be based on the time it took the horse to run the race, compared against the speed of the race track and the other horse who ran on it that day.
Speed ratings are great way of determining how good a horse is and are very popular in American horse racing. However, in the UK they are no so popular.
But because they are very effective, and not too many people use them, there is a definite betting edge to be had from creating your own speed ratings and including them in your selection process.
For example, if you found your speed ratings showed a horse had the top speed rating in a race, and the conditions on the day looked like they would suit that horse, yet the betting market looked like it was underestimating its chances, you may have just found a good value bet.
Creating your own speed ratings is not too difficult, but you will need to know all the basics before you begin.
So if you’re interested in creating your own speed ratings, I would recommend reading Beyer On Speed which you can get here. – http://amzn.to/1OHQSa5
Until next time,
Kenny Turnbull
